Democratic council members call for extended early voting

In a letter to the Hamilton
County Board of Elections, City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld today asked the
Board to extend in-person early voting hours in the county. Council members
Roxanne Qualls, Chris Seelbach, Cecil Thomas,
Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson and Wendell Young also signed the letter.
Council members Christopher Smitherman, an Independent, and Charlie Winburn, a Republican, were notified
of the letter Thursday, but they did not agree to sign.

In-person early
voting will begin on Oct. 2 and run until Nov. 2. If hours are not
extended, polls in Hamilton County will only be open on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If the Board agrees to Sittenfeld's recommendations,
early voting will be extended to 8 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday
mornings.

The letter brings home a political controversy that has recently gained
national attention. In recent weeks, Democrats have accused state Republicans of extending in-person early voting in
predominantly Republican counties and keeping shorter in-person early
voting hours in predominantly Democratic counties.

Democrats typically point to Warren County and Butler
County — two predominantly Republican counties with extended in-person
early voting — and the recent actions of Ohio Secretary of State Jon
Husted. In the predominantly Democratic counties of Lucas, Cuyahoga,
Summit and Franklin, Husted had to break ties in Boards of Election
on the issue of in-person early voting hours. In every case, Husted
voted against extending in-person early voting hours.

Kurtz is
referring to Republicans' initial push to end
in-person early voting in Ohio. In 2011, Republicans passed two laws —
H.B. 194 and H.B. 224 — that ended in-person early voting in the state. After
Democrats managed to get enough petition signatures to put the early
voting issue
on the November ballot, Republicans repealed H.B. 194. However, by not
repealing H.B. 224, Republicans have made it so all non-military voters
are still disallowed to vote the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before
Election Day. Democrats
and President Barack Obama have filed a lawsuit to restore those early
voting days for all voters, including military personnel and families.

Democrats
like Kurtz argue that in-person early voting is necessary to
maintain reliable, efficient elections. In 2004, Ohio did not have
in-person early voting in place, and the state drew national attention
when its long voting lines forced some people to wait as long as 10 hours
to vote. After the debacle, a Republican-controlled legislature and
Gov. Bob Taft, also a Republican, passed laws allowing in-person early voting.

But
now Republicans seem skeptical of their own laws.
Republicans say the measures are meant to cut costs and stop voter
fraud, but Democrats say the measures are all about suppressing the vote. In
a moment of honesty, former Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer told
MSNBC that the measures are about disenfranchising demographics that typically side with Democrats. Even Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has stepped in to criticize Republicans for what he sees as disenfranchisement.

But Kurtz says the talk about a uniform rule is "pure
silliness." He says counties have differences, so they need
different voting times. Instead of worrying about uniformity or what
counties can afford, Kurtz says Husted should worry managing elections
and "empowering people to vote."

The calls for extended early voting come a time when
Hamilton County is facing budget issues. With a $20 million budget
shortfall projected for next year, affording more early voting hours might
be difficult. No official estimate has been released on how much the
extended hours would cost.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections will meet Thursday at 9 a.m. to discuss extending in-person early voting hours.

The Ohio Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against Gov.
John Kasich — who they claim is improperly using his office to campaign
for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney — to get the
governor to release his schedule of public events.

The ODP’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Franklin County
Court of Common Pleas, contends that Kasich’s office either ignored or
only partially fulfilled the request.

“It’s unfortunate that this Governor is so opposed to
transparency and public disclosure that we have to ask the Court to
force him to follow the law,” ODP Chairman Chris Redfern said in a
statement.

“Serious questions remain regarding whether the Governor
has improperly used his office for the benefit of Mitt Romney, and it’s
deeply disappointing Kasich is so secretive he won’t even tell the
public what he’s done or where he’s gone.”

“We release public records in accordance with the law, and
in fact have already publicly released the governor’s schedule six
times, including a schedule request to the ODP,” Nichols said.

“This is predictable election year politics from the same
people who were just rebuked for using public records demands to
interfere with the Auditor of State’s investigation into possible data
manipulation in some school districts.”

Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Jerid Kurtz said Kasich’s
office did respond to one of the seven requests for the schedule, but
some of the information in the records was redacted — including an
entire week that was blacked out with no explanation.

“Ohio law is very clear, and it states you have to give a specific excuse when you redact something,” Kurtz said.

According to the lawsuit and court documents, the ODP
requested on July 2 Kasich’s public schedule from that date through Aug.
27.

According to a letter to the Ohio Democratic Party from
Mehek M. Cook — assistant chief counsel to Kasich — the information
about the governor's future plans was blacked out because that information
could put him at risk.

“The governor and his office receive threats on any given
day and the release of his whereabouts increases security issues
surrounding the governor’s safety,” Cook wrote.

Cook wrote that any information in the records used by the
Executive Protection Unit assigned to guard Kasich constitutes a
security record and was redacted.

He also wrote that some information that would reveal
confidential business meetings and trade secrets that would harm Ohio
efforts to court businesses was blacked out. Additionally, information
not relevant to the request was redacted.

Kurtz said it’s important that the public have access
those schedules because voters have a right to know what their governor
is doing on the public dime.

The schedules include where the governor is and with whom
he meets, but they also show scheduled phone calls and media interviews.

The Ohio Democratic Party worries that Kasich is
improperly campaigning for Romney while receiving a taxpayer-funded
paycheck, or using public money to have his staff do so.

The concerns stem from statements made by Kasich both in
public and on his Twitter account either praising the presumed
Republican presidential nominee or slamming President Obama.

For instance, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported that when Obama visited Ohio on Aug. 1 the governor tweeted “On
the occasion of the President's latest visit to Ohio, we have a
question for him,” with a link to a graphic asking “If the President's
policies are behind Ohio's success, why is the rest of the country
trailing us?”

Democrats claim that Ohio’s success relative to the rest
of the country are due to efforts by President Obama, while Republicans
say Governor Kasich is behind Ohio’s faster-than-average recovery.

While the Ohio Democratic Party is suing to have Kasich
release his public schedule (Kurtz says Attorney General Mike DeWine and
Auditor Dave Yost complied with similar requests in a timely manner)
the state Republican Party has also submitted similar requests to
Democrats throughout Ohio.

Kurtz characterized the GOP requests as being sent by
Kasich’s “hand-picked lieutenants in the Ohio Republican Party,” though
Nichols told The Plain Dealer that the governor had no involvement.

A Hamilton County budget shortfall could force officials to cut more than 300 county
jobs, according to Hamilton County Administrator Christian Sigman. If the county doesn’t fix
its problems, it could fall into “fiscal emergency.” Officials are
worried some cuts could jeopardize functions required by state law. A
recent study found that the national unemployment rate would be at 7.1
percent if it wasn’t for government job cuts.

More than $85 million has been awarded to local
transportation projects by the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of
Governments. The funding will go to Metro buses, roads, traffic signals
and more.

City Councilmember Charlie Winburn, the lone Republican on City Council, is thinking about running for mayor in 2013. Mayor Mark Mallory is currently serving his last term, so he will not be able to run again.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said he is considering
establishing uniform early voting hours statewide. Recently, Democrats
have been accusing Republicans of a statewide conspiracy to extend
voting hours in Democratic counties and shrink voting hours in
Republican counties.

Ohio was the 13th fattest state in 2011, according to a new report from
the Center of Disease Control. Fortunately, Ohio managed to
stay under a 30 percent obesity rate, unlike the 12 fattest states.

In the future, Ohio will be the ninth worst state to live
in, according to a new Gallup analysis. Ohio still beat
Kentucky, which ranked third worst. Not so fortunately, Utah topped the
ranks. I’ve been to Utah, and I prefer Ohio. I don’t trust your math,
Gallup!

The Medicaid expansion does not have to be permanent,
according to federal officials. States can expand then scale back,
although it will cost federal funds. Medicaid expansions have been
proven to save lives and boost health, but Gov. John Kasich is still undecided about the expansion.

The campaign manager of Mike Wilson, the Republican candidate for state representative in Ohio’s 28th district, sent out a press release late afternoon Monday. Its headline read: “Wilson stands with military voters: Opposed Obama effort to attack military voting rights.”

The accusation localized a national issue that had been driven through networks all weekend. It started with presidential candidate Mitt Romney. On Saturday, after Romney was asked a question about a lawsuit President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party had filed against state officials to restore all early voting in Ohio, the Romney camp posted a statement on Romney’s Facebook page: "President Obama's lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period is an outrage." The message went on to say Romney stands by the "fifteen military groups" opposing the lawsuit.To be clear, the lawsuit Obama and the Democratic Party filed on July 17 is not meant to diminish or take away anyone’s voting rights. On the contrary, it is meant to give early voting rights to everyone, including military personnel. Right now, in-person early voting begins on Oct. 2, but it is cut off three days before Election Day for everyone except military personnel and their families, who keep the right to vote in-person on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day. If the lawsuit is successful, those three days of in-person early voting will be extended to the rest of Ohio’s voting population.

So any accusation that Obama and the Democrats are trying to take away or attack anyone’s voting rights is false.

But that has not deterred Republicans from using the attack. They used it in press releases and statements all day Monday. The Wilson campaign invoked the attack in its own press release when it said it opposed the “Obama effort to attack military voting rights.” But Wilson’s opposition is a bit more nuanced than the political spin Republicans have wrongfully put on Obama’s lawsuit.

“I think there are a few potential outcomes out of the lawsuit: One is the three days are extended to everyone, another is the court strikes down the three days altogether,” Wilson says.

Wilson is worried a court could agree with the premise of the lawsuit — that it is unconstitutional to give one group of people, meaning military personnel, extra voting rights — but not the goal of the lawsuit: that all in-person early voting rights should be extended to all Ohio citizens. The result of that ruling could be the repeal of the three extra in-person voting days. That would ensure everyone’s rights are treated equally because then no one would have the extra right of voting in-person one, two or three days early.

However, this outcome is not desirable by the Obama team or the Democrats. On the contrary, Ohio Democrats have repeatedly pushed for legislation that restores early voting rights Republican legislators did away with in H.B. 194 and H.B. 224 in 2011. Before those two laws, Ohio allowed everyone to vote in-person a full five weeks before Election Day. So if Obama and the Democrats had their way, this lawsuit would not be necessary because all in-person early voting days would still be available to all Ohio voters, just like they were in 2008 and 2010.

If the Obama lawsuit reaches its goal and voting rights are extended to all citizens, Wilson still has some concerns. Under that scenario, Wilson is worried military personnel would have longer lines when they go out to vote, which he says would be harder on military personnel that have restrictions on travel and free time due to their jobs.

But those restrictions on travel and free time are why absentee ballots exist in the first place, and absentee ballots would be unaffected by the Obama lawsuit. Absentee ballots allow voters — traditionally military voters — to mail in ballots without showing up to a polling station. Military personnel can start mailing in absentee ballots starting on Oct. 2, regardless of the lawsuit.

The two scenarios Wilson presented are similar to the reasons given by military organizations for opposing the lawsuit.

Even if either scenario came true, all Ohioans — including military personnel — will still be able to vote early starting Oct. 2. The lawsuit only deals with in-person voting on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day.

Voters First says it will gather the signatures necessary by July 28 deadline

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Wednesday Voters
First did not turn in enough valid signatures for its redistricting
reform amendment. The organization will now have to gather 130,000 more
signatures before July 28 if the amendment is to appear on the November
ballot.

The organization fired back in a statement Wednesday, saying it
will still have enough signatures to get the amendment on the ballot.

“We never stopped collecting signatures even after filing our
first round of petitions on July 3rd,” Dennis Willard, spokesperson for
Voters First, said in the statement.

The organization has criticized Republicans for building a
campaign against the Voters First amendment. In an email to Voters First
supporters Wednesday, Ann Henkener, a board member of the League of
Women Voters, said Republicans were holding meetings to find ways to
stop the amendment.

Henkener may not be far off. Dayton Daily News reported Tuesday
that Republicans have launched Protect Your Vote Ohio, a PAC in
opposition to the Voters First amendment. David Langdon, a
Cincinnati-based conservative, was named as the PAC’s treasurer.

If the Voters First amendment appeared on the ballot and passed,
redistricting would be placed in the hands of an independent citizens
commission. Under the current system, district boundaries are redrawn
every 10 years by state officials — a system politicians have taken
advantage of by redrawing districts in politically advantageous ways.
Cincinnati’s district was redrawn during the Republican-controlled
process to include more suburban and rural areas, particularly Warren
County, in a move that could give Republicans an advantage on Election
Day.

A citizen committee has determined that levy-funded
Hamilton County social-service agencies need to provide their services
with fewer resources, advising that property owners pay the same levy
rate despite decreases in property values that will reduce funding for
groups that help senior citizens and people with mental illnesses. The
decision by the 11-member committee will reportedly affect 30,000
residents who rely on such agencies to provide services such as meal
delivery and counseling. In order to keep funding level the levy would
have had to increase the cost for the owner of a $100,000 home by $6.

From The Enquirer:

Bosses of the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio had
already agreed to live on less, but argued against some committee
recommendations.

Those include:

• Raising the age criteria. Currently 9 percent of clients
are between 60 and 70 years old. An agency spokeswoman said that’s
because services are disability-based. Some “younger” seniors – those
suffering from strokes and early Alzheimer’s, for instance – have more
needs than older people.

• Requiring new clients to meet U.S. legal resident
requirements. According to the agency, screening for U.S. citizenship
would make the program ineligible to use Older Americans Act dollars, at
a cost of almost $1.2 million a year. The spokeswoman said all clients
live in the county.

Enquirer reporters Carrie Whitaker and Janice Morse
broke from traditional journalistic standard on Tuesday by reporting
the names of teenagers involved in an alleged theft and police chase.
The three girls, ages 16, 14 and 12, were identified by full name and as being from
Avondale and Pleasant Ridge. A follow up story on Wednesday reported two
of the girls being released from the hospital. It also included the
minors’ names and did not include a reporter’s byline.

Jean Schmidt sided with Democrats on an attempt to stop
Republicans from cutting even deeper the funding for the national food
stamp program. The legislation that passed will cut the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by more than $16 billion over 10
years. GOP lawmakers wanted it cut by $33 billion.

Organization submits 450,000 petition signatures to Ohio Secretary of State

Ohio's House Bill 369 has been causing fuss across the state since it was signed into law by Ohio Gov. John Kasich last December, and opponents of the bill are close to getting an amendment onto the November ballot that would redesign the congressional districts instituted by the bill.

On July 3, Voters First, a coalition established after HB-369's inception to combat the bill's Republican-led efforts to deliberately have congressional and legislative districts drawn in their favor, submitted 450,000 petition
signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State — significantly more than the
385,000 signatures necessary to obtain a spot on the November ballot.
At the end of the month, the Secretary of State will review the
signatures and determine which are eligible, after which the coalition will have another set period to obtain more signatures, should the 385,000 not be met.

Opponents of HB-369 argue the drawing of last year's new congressional districts represents gerrymandering — when district boundaries are deliberately manipulated to favor a specific political party, grouping certain demographics strategically and distorting voter representations. According to Voters First, last year's secretive redistricting process was led exclusively by Republicans who deliberately disregarded public input.

They've been working to amass support for a new bill that would bring transparency and fairness to the redistricting process, which typically occurs every ten years following a census.

According to Dan Tokaji, an Ohio State University law professor and member of the Voters First coalition, the issue is one that crosses all party lines. "This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. [Gerrymandering] has been done by both parties. The opposition has been trying to characterize this as a Democrat-led effort."

What has happened, explains Tokaji, is that in Ohio the Republicans currently hold political control, so it just so happens that they jumped on the redistricting opportunity to create districts that specifically advantage them.

"You could throw a bucket of paint on the wall and it wouldn't be as ugly as these maps," says Tokaji.

In Cincinnati, the redistricting included more suburban and rural areas in the city's Congressional district, potentially giving Republicans greater weight in the district (CityBeatreported on the situation May 30 in response to We Are Ohio
joining the effort to overturn the GOP-drawn maps.)

Voters First has proposed an amendment for the November ballot that would bring transparency and fairness to the redistricting process by establishing a 12-member "Ohio Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission" that would be made up of non-partisan Ohio citizens. According to Tokaji, members would have to go through an application process that would specifically eliminate politicians, lobbyists and large political donors. Tokaji says the commission would bring to the redistricting process four key components that were deliberately absent in the 2011 process, including fairness, encouragement of competition, respect for community boundaries and compactness of districts.

"Ohioans across the political spectrum are just tired of politics as usual. They're sick of leaders acting in a selfish way. We need to change that.

To read the
full text of Voters First’s proposed amendment, click here. For more information about Voters First or to sign the petition, click here.

Also listed was House Speaker John Boehner, who allegedly
had mention of his knowledge of the Mark Foley congressional page
scandal scrubbed from his page.

CityBeat on Wednesday asked for comment from the offices of Schmidt and Boehner but no response was given.

“The Armenian Genocide issue” section appeared on
Schmidt’s page as of Wednesday. It’s unclear whether the section had
previously been removed.

According to the entry, Schmidt came under fire in 2008
from congressional challenger David Krikorian for failing to publicly
define the mass killing of 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians between
1915-1916 as the “Armenian Genocide.”

The Armenian-American Krikorian accused Schmidt of taking
tens of thousands in “blood money” from the Turkish government in order
to push the denial. Krikorian’s claims resulted in a defamation lawsuit
from Schmidt and a complaint before the House Ethics Committee.

However, Boehner’s page still contained no mention of his knowledge of the Foley page scandal as of Wednesday afternoon.

In 2006 former Republican Florida Rep. Mark Foley resigned
over reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at
least one underage male former congressional page.

Boehner told The Washington Post that he had
learned of inappropriate “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page
and told then-House Speaker Dennis Hassert about it. He later told the
newspaper that he couldn’t remember whether he talked to Hassert.

While anti-urban Cincinnatians gripe over the
twice-approved $95 million streetcar project — some going so far as to
attach anti-funding amendments to federal bills that will never be
included in the final legislation — authorities on the other side of the
river are demonstrating just how little $20 million on transportation
funding can provide. The state will widen KY 237 in Boone County using
elevated ramps to allow for left-hand turns, adding a freeway-style
element to the residential/corridor area. The two-year project will be
paid for using Federal Surface Transportation Program funds.

Starting this fall all students in Newport
Independent Schools will get free breakfast and lunch because the
district is participating in the Community Eligibility Option in
President Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

For particle physicists, finding the Higgs boson is a key
to confirming the standard model of physics that explains what gives
mass to matter and, by extension, how the universe was formed. …

Rosen compared the results scientists are preparing to
announce Wednesday to finding the fossilized imprint of a dinosaur: “You
see the footprints and the shadow of the object, but you don’t actually
see it.”

Spain won the 2012 European Championship soccer tournament on Sunday with a
4-0 victory over Italy. The Spanish team is being considered one of the
greatest ever, as it has won three straight major tournaments, including
the 2010 World Cup and 2008 Euro.

It was “Rich People Voice Their Concerns Night” at city
councils across town last night, as proponents of the $1 sale of Music
Hall packed Cincinnati City Council chambers even though the proposed
lease deal wasn’t on the agenda. Mayor Mark Mallory insisted that any
middle ground that will allow the nonprofit Music Hall Revitalization
Co. to renovate the building will require that the city retain
ownership.

Across town (and about 10 miles northeast toward the area with mass trees), Madeira City Council shot down a plan to
develop a luxury apartment complex on Camargo Road. Council voted 6-1 to
scrap the plan for a 184-unit complex after residents who voiced
concern said the complex would be “too dense” and take away from the
city’s single-family character. Word on the street is that the Council
majority didn’t want scumbag renters like this guy to be able to move
into the neighborhood and start playing music really loud out of their car stereos.

Cincinnati City Council yesterday pretty much canceled its
plans to build an atrium at City Hall. Six council members approved a
motion asking administrators to shut it down, and City Manager
Milton Dohoney says he’ll abide by it even though he technically doesn’t
have to because the funding was approved in a spending ordinance.

Now that the Supreme Court has temporarily upheld part of Arizona’s racist
controversial immigration law, no-name state legislators in Ohio and
Kentucky plan to break out the laws they couldn’t previously get passed.
According to The Enquirer’s Mark Curnutte (who apparently won a
national book award for his work covering poverty in Haiti — big ups,
Curnutte!), some dudes named Courtney Combs (R-Ross Township, Ohio) and
John Schickel (R-Union, Ky.) have some great ways to rid of their states'
illegal immigrants, at least until the court strikes down the rest of
Arizona’s law.